Method of manufacturing chenille



Feb. 7, 1933. R. B. KALBACH 1,896,403

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING CHENILLE I Original Filed Aug. 27, 1950 Sheets-Sheet 1 1 EN TOR. fiflyMoA/o B #374 5/70/ 1,

A TTORNEY.

Feb; 7, 1933. R K 'H 1,896,408

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING CHENILLE Original Filed Aug. 27, 1930 2 SheetsSheet 2 l VA/TOR. ffivy/wa/va 5. K52 B17677 ATTORNEY.

Patented Feb. 7, 1933 PATENT oFFIcE A};

RAYMOND B. KALBAoInor PHILADEL PI-IIA, PENNsYLvAivIe METHOD OF MANUFACTURING CHENILLE Original application filed' August 27, 1930, Serial No. 477,998.. Divided and this application filed June 24,

' 1931. Serial No. 546,491.

The invention, stated in its broadest terms, relates to chenille formation and has more especial relation to the fabrication of what I choose to term braid chenille, the present .5 application being a division of my co-pending application for method of and apparatus for makingchenille fabric, filed August 27, 1930, Serial No. 477,998. r As is wellknown in the art, chenille is manufactured upon a loom, the disadvantages' of which are numerous. As an example, chenille as woven upon a loom may be readily pulled apart because the weft yarn is not efficiently. bound by the warp yarn.

Again, chenille as woven upon a loom is restricted as to its shape or form and. its color schemes for obvious reasons; v r

This invention has for its leading object toovercome the above and other disadvantages of weaving chenille-upon a loom by forming chenille upon abraiding or twisting machine whereby flat braid chenille havingone or'more cores forming .a base may be fabricated, or a double pile braid chenille may be made with or without any cores to form=a basein whichthe strands of yarn going to make up the chenille in both instances cannot be readily separated, and likewise in which the color scheme is expansive 3. since as many as one hundred or more colors, shades, or tones may be eflectedapproximately covering one inch or less throughout the extent of the chenille. 1

A further object of the present invention 3 is to fabricate braid chenille upon a braiding or twisting machine, whereby strands of material-such as wool, cotton jute, paper, rags, and the like may be employed in the making of chenille in accordance with the invention. v 1 A still further object of the. present invention resides in the provision of apparatus embodying novel features designed to produce chenille of the character stated in th foregoing objects. v

lWitl'l these and related objects in view. the invention consists, of the novel method and apparatus for producing braid chenille as hereinafter described and finally claimed.

5, The nature, characteristic features and scope of the invention will be more fully understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming part hereof, and in which: Y

Fig. 1 is a view in front elevation of, a novel braiding machine arranged for the manufacture of braid chenille in accordance with the present invention; i y

Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation of the upper part of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an elevational view of the sewing machine parts as shown the foregoing Figs. in detached relation Fig. 4 is a view in perspective illustrating the position of the braid with relation to the sewing machine cutting device for the severing of yarn to complete chenille;

v Fig. 5'is, a view in cross-section ofthebraid prior tobeing presented for the severing of yarn to form chenille; L

6 is a similar view illustrating the braid yarn as severed to form what may be termed single edge chenille;

Fig. is a similar view illustrating the yarn severed to form what may be termed coreless. double edge chenille; .i

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary view in cross-section of my novel chenille fabriczand Fig. 9 is a view of the underside of Fig. ,8.

Forthe purpose of illustrating my inven} tion I have shown in the accompanying drawings oneform thereof which is at present preferred by me, since the. same has been found in practice to. giVes'atisfactOry and reliable results, although it is to beunderstood thatthe various instrumentalities of which my invention consists can be variously arranged and organized and that my invention is not limited to the precise arrangement and organization of the instrumental-ities as herein shown and described. 5

Referring now to the drawings in detail, the reference numeral 10 designates the main driving shaft of a braiding machine of any desired type which shaft is .operably connected to drive in a tortuous path a plurality of bobbins 11, so that the yarn 12 from the bobbins 11 passes through a well known type offormer of circular cross section and is l0 twisted together in the shape of the figure eight shown in Fig. 5, as is well understood in the art of fashioning braid. In braid formation the yarn 12 is drawn upwardly between and by means of feed rollers 13 and 14. The feed roller 14 is fixed to cross horizontal shaft15 rotatable in a fixed bracket 26, which shaft 15 is provided with a gear wheel 16 meshing with a gear wheel 17 fixed to a short horizontal shaft 18 having a worm gear 19 in mesh with a worm gear 20 fixed to vertical shaft 21, which is operably connected by means of bevel gear wheels 22 and 23 with the main driving shaft 10, see Fig. 1. The cross horizontal shaft 15 as operated in the manner just set forth has fixed thereto a gear wheel 24 in mesh with a gear wheel 25 fixed to a short shaft 27 paralleling shaft 15 and journalled in a bracket 28, so that as the main driving shaft 10 operates the braiding mechanism the rollers 13 and 14 operate to draw upwardly the yarn from the bobbins and feed the braid as formed in a relatively fiat condition to stitching and cutting mechanism to be presently described as mounted thereabove, it being understood that the above described parts are properly timed to efficiently function. The braiding machine is provided adjacent the bobbins 11 with a fixed hollow member 29 through which yarn 30 to form a core or stuffer is drawnupwardly overroller 31 to a fixed tubular guide 32, best seen in Fig. 1,itbeing understood that the coreyarn 30 passes along with the yarn 12 between the rollers 13 and 14 before described. Inopposed relation with respect to member 29 through which the core yarn 30 is fed is a fixed support33secured to. which is a relatively thin bar34 of rectangular cross-section which 7 extends upwardly in parallelism with the path of travel of the core yarn and binding yarn, as plainlyseen in Fig. 1, between the rollers 13 and 14 and terminates adjacent sewing mechanism to be presently described.v .This fixed bar 34 is inclined at '35 to about the same inclination as thetubular guide 32 so as to be free of the travel of the bobbins 11. The upper end of the inclined guide 32 is provided with an upwardly extended, flaring, open ended tip .36 which extends substantially in parallelism with the vertical portion of fixed guide bar 34 above its inclined portion 35 and lies in close juxtaposition to said vertical portionof bar 34immediately above the bobbinsll. In practice as the core yarn and binding .yarn,'which latter is usually colored and the tints, shades, and combinations of which are practically unlimited, are fed together to the position AA in Fig. 1, at which point the core yarn 30 and fixed bar 34 has braided with respect'thereto the binding yarn 12, it being understood that as the feed rollers 13 and 14 draw upwardly'the combined yarns, those strands of the binding yarn which surround the fixed bar 34, as plainly seen in Fig. 5, are sufiiciently loose to be readily guided over and along the bar 35 to stitching mechanism now to be described.

Mounted upon the fixed upright frame 38 of the braiding machine which carries the brackets 26 and 28 is a sewing machine 39, best seen in Fig. .3. This sewing machine is equipped with several novel features, as will presently appear, and has its base bolted at 40 to the frame 38, as best seen in Fig. 2, so that its needle 41, connected with respectto conventional operating lever 42, operative by connections with the drive shaft 434 of the sewing machine, functions in a horizontal position as clearly shown in Fig. 2. The lever 42 which also operates the shuttle mechanism of the sewing machine has pivoted thereto at 43 a horizontally arranged link 44 which has pivotal relation at 45 with a vertically arranged arm 46 which has fulcrumed relation with the sewing machine base'a nd has pivoted to its free end a horizontally extended link 47 which link in turn has pivotal relation at 48 with the movable cutter blade 49 of a severing device. The movable blade 49 has pivotal relation at 51 with the u per portion of the yarn guide bar 34 and the xed blade of the cutting device is rigidly secured at 52 along with top end of the bar 34 to a. fixed bracket 53 carried by the sewing machine. The fixed blade of the cutting device is formed integral with the bar 34. The cutting device is mounted immediately above the needle 41 of the sewing machine and the bar 34 is so arranged that it passes to one side of the needle in order to permit proper functioning of the needle in making a line of stitches 54, see Fig. 5, between the core-filled strands and the strands covering the bar 34, said line of stitches paralleling the core and bar. In order to properly direct the braided material with respect to the needle 41 a guide 55 of U-shaped cross-section isprovided, see Fig.3, adjustable'by wing nuts 56 coacting with a slot 57 in said guide. In order to drive the sewing machine-shaft 43 which op erates the needle 41 through lever 42 I provide a horizontally arranged pulley 58 upon vertical shaft 21 and connect the same with vertically arranged pulley 59 upon shaft 43 of the sewing machine by means of a belt 60 passing over guide rollers 61, see Fig. 1. With the braided material stitched as described it becomes necessary to cut or sever the yarn 12 surrounding the fixed idebar 34 to form the pile threads 61, see *ig. 6, for the production of chenille. The severing blade 49 previously described functions in connection with the edge of the fixed bar 34 to sever the loops of the binding yarn 12 which surrounds said ,bar, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 4. In order to pull the braided material steadily away from the severing device in order to obtain a clean cut, I provide friction rollers 62 and 63 mounted upon shafts 64 and 65, provided with meshing gear wheels to operate in unison, shaft 63 havin fixed thereto a pulley 66 connected by belt 6 with a driving pulley 68 fixed to cross shaft 15, as best seen inFig. 2. The chenille thus produced is drawn over roller 69 and guided through the horizontally arranged, fixed tube 70 between the friction rollers 64 and 65, and thence downwardly over roller 71 supported upon upright 72, which also carries the friction roller shafts 64 and 65. It will be understood that the above operation is continuous and uninterrupted and that the braiding, stitching, and severing operations occur in sequential relation until the finished chenille passes from the apparatus as shown in Fig. 2.

It now becomes necessary to fabricate the chenille thus fashioned upon a braiding machine into a suitable article of manufacture, usually a rug or other floor covering, although obviously the commodities which may be formed of my novel chenille are not restricted thereto. Assuming for the purpose of illustration that a floor covering is to be made, I assemble the core containing portions of the chenille in alignment, as shown in Figs. 8 and 9, and stitch together as at 7 3 adjacent core containing portions.

In case a double pile chenille without a core is desired, a pair of the fixed guide bars 34 are employed, and instead of braiding or twisting the strands of yarn around the core 30, as before described, the yarn is braided or twisted around both guide bars and sewn and the loops severed as shown in Fig. 7.

In case a double pile chenille with a core is desired a pair of guide bars 34 are employed, one upon each side of the core, and those loops enclosing the core are sewn and severed as before described.

In the above description I have referred to the chenille as being formed upon a braiding machine because in practice the chenille thus formed has proven to be for commercial purposes most satisfactory. Practice dictates, however, that my chenille may be made upon a so-called twistlng machine in which a strip of material, spirally wound, may be fabricated and cut to form chenille. The specification and claims accordingly are to be interpreted to include any continuous strip of material formed of yarn the strands of which are braided, plaited, or spirally wound and bound together and severed as described.

What is claimed is:

1. The herein described method of manufacturing chenille which consists in first taking strands of yarn and forming same around side edge loops throughout its extent, and finally severing the loops of at least one side edge of said strip of material to form a pile therefor.

2. The herein described method of manufacturing chenille which consists in first taka former of circular cross-section into a continuous, braided strip of material of 8- shaped cross-section, fashioned to provide side edge loops, then stitching said braided 8-shaped strip of material intermediate its 

